A New Definition of Torture

I spent five hours today driving back from Houston and all my car radio could pick up was NPR.

The news itself wasn't so bad, but Latino USA nearly made me drive off the road. I listen to (and watch) a lot of programming aimed at Hispanic audiences. Living in a state like Texas, which has a large Hispanic population, I find shows like American Latino TV very interesting, providing information on places to go, movies to see, and much more. But Latino USA's topic this week was the Criminal Alien Program of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department, and the show was decidedly pro-criminal. Well, that's not what they would have called it. They spoke repeatedly about immigrants, never using the term illegal immigrants. In short, the program treated government enforcement of immigration laws as if they were targetting people here legally and abusing them.

Even in a segment with Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Julie Meyers, interviewer Maria Hinojosa tried to dismiss any concerns about criminal immigrants as somehow abusive of law-abiding citizens. Yet the CAP program is specifically aimed at people who are here illegally who then commit more crimes. And we're not talking about traffic violations or truancy, as Hinojosa tried to argue, but violent crimes.

Keep in mind that programs like Latino USA are funded in part by your tax dollars.